Set up CRM for tablets

Your users are probably asking for Microsoft Dynamics CRM for tablets. Here’s the information you need as an admin to deploy and support Microsoft Dynamics CRM for tablets - the new set of tablet apps for Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 on-premises deployments require Internet Facing Deployment (IFD) for users to access their data on their tablets. If you have your Microsoft Dynamics CRM website available over the internet but it is not using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM IFD configuration, it is not supported. To verify that your on-premises deployment is configured for IFD, open Microsoft Dynamics CRM Deployment Manager on your Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server. The Authentication Summary section should show that both Claims-Based Authentication and Internet-Facing Deployment are enabled. For more information, see Configuring Claims-based Authentication for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.

A new security privilege was introduced to provide access to use CRM for tablets. The privilege is called Use CRM for tablets.

Prior releases of Microsoft Dynamics CRM have included a privilege called Go Mobile, which grants a user access to use of Microsoft Dynamics CRM from a mobile phone. To avoid confusion between the existing privilege (for phones) and the new CRM for tablets privilege, the Go Mobile privilege has been renamed to CRM for phones.

By default, this privilege is included for the following default security roles:

CEO-Business Manager

Salesperson

Sales Manager

Vice President of Sales

System Administrator

System Customizer

This applies to new installations of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online or Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 (on-premises), as well as customers that upgrade from Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. You can add or remove this privilege from custom or default security roles to meet your business needs. If a user does not have this privilege, they will receive the following error:

You haven't been authorized to use this app. Check with your system administrator to update your settings.

Note

Microsoft Dynamics CRM includes the ability to audit user access. Audit events are logged if a user accesses your CRM organization through CRM for tablets. However, there is not a new event type that indicates the access was through CRM for tablets. The audit login events would appear as User Access via Web Services.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 is required for CRM for tablets users to connect to their Microsoft Dynamics CRM organization. Organizations that are using earlier versions of on-premises editions of Microsoft Dynamics CRM will need to upgrade.

In the CRM for tablets app, swipe in from the right edge of your screen to open the command bar. Press Settings, and then press About. Verify that App version is 1.0.0.98 or higher.

Apple iPad and Android

In the CRM for tablets app, tap the More Commands icon at the bottom of the screen to open the command bar. Press Settings, and then press About. Verify that App version is 1.0.51 or higher.

When the application first loads after installation, it will determine the device language and load the user interface in that language. If the device language is not one of the supported languages, the application will load in English. Once the application has been configured in a Microsoft Dynamics CRM organization, the application will load in the language specified in the user’s personal options. If the user language is not one of the supported languages, the application will fall back to the base language of the CRM organization, if it is in the supported language list. If the organization’s base language is not supported, then English will be the final fallback if it is enabled on the server.

This fallback logic will evaluate several language settings - such as the browser language - when it determines the fallback language. In the following scenario, the fallback will match the browser language:

The first step to enable tablet device access to your Microsoft Dynamics CRM account is to set the Use CRM for tablets privilege in the appropriate security role for the users you want to have tablet device access.

Make sure that you have the System Administrator or System Customizer security role or equivalent permissions.

Don’t have the correct permissions? Contact your system administrator.

In the nav bar, click or tap Microsoft Dynamics CRM > Settings.

Settings appears in the nav bar.

Click or tap Settings > Administration > Security Roles. Select the security role for the security role you want to give tablet access (for example, Salesperson). Then, click or tap the Business Management tab.

Verify that Use CRM for tablets is set to Organization. If not, click or tap Use CRM for tablets.

Click or tap Save and Close to save the changes to the security role.

Send an email to the tablet-enabled users to let them know they can download the mobile app from the app store. Include the organization URL and sign-in information in the email.

If your mobile devices are managed - under the control of group policy - do the following:

Caution

This task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following link to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: How to back up and restore the registry in Windows.

If you plan on using group policy to do a domain wide deployment of the registry change required and your server is not running Windows Server 2012 R2, download and install the Windows Server Administrative Templates.

You can enable a limited set of entities for CRM for tablets. To see if an entity is enabled or to enable an entity, click or tap Settings > Customizations > Customize the System > Entities. Select an entity and review the Outlook & Mobile settings.

Note the following:

All custom entities can be enabled for CRM for tablets.

You can use the Lookup for entities that are not enabled for CRM for tablets from a record that is enabled and see the data. However, the entity will not be editable.

The Sales Dashboard is a new dashboard designed for CRM for tablets. This dashboard is viewable to all users in the web application along with other system dashboards. It is possible to use the new ability to assign security roles to a dashboard so that this dashboard appears only to users with certain security roles. To set who has access to the Sales Dashboard, click or tap Settings > Customizations > Customize the System > Components > Dashboards and select the Sales Dashboard. Then, click or tap Enable Security Roles.

Note the following:

The Sales Dashboard has the same six-component limit as dashboards in the web application.

You can set the default views for the included components.

Two components are supported: Charts and Lists.

The layout is set to a panoramic view.

Note

Because CRM for tablets depends on this specific dashboard, it cannot be deleted. However, you can rename it.

If an entity is enabled for CRM for tablets and appears in the nav bar (sitemap) for the web application, then it will also appear on the nav bar in CRM for tablets.

The CRM for tablets app will show the entities as a flat list. It ignores any groupings within web application areas. You can add an entity to multiple groups on the web application, but CRM for tablets displays a flattened list and does not show any repeats. CRM for tablets applies your Microsoft Dynamics CRM security role, so you will not see an entity unless you have at least read access to that entity.

The order of the items in the nav bar in CRM for tablets is determined by the order in the sitemap in the web application. If there is a duplicate, CRM for tablets shows only the first instance.

The lists of records that appear on the Sales Dashboard and within a form appear as simple lists. These lists have a different appearance than the typical view of records. There are a few frequently used actions you can perform on a simple list:

Tap the header of a list to access the full list for the current view.

Tap a list item to open the form for that item.

Tap and hold an item to display the command bar.

Tap the new item button (+) to the right of the view name to create a new record of that type.

Note the following.

The new item button (+) appears to the right of the view name for any entity type that is Read/Write enabled for CRM for tablets.

Simple lists retrieve ten records at a time regardless of the Records Per Page setting in your Personal Options area of the web application. As you scroll to the bottom of the list, CRM for tablets displays additional records.

Fields Displayed

A typical view of records displays all columns in the view definition. A simple list displays the first few columns from the selected view. Simple lists are also capable of displaying images for each record if the entity is enabled to display images.

The number of fields displayed in the list is different depending on whether or not the entity is enabled for images. If the entity is enabled for images, the image is the first thing to appear. Next to the image the primary field for the entity is displayed first and will wrap up to 2 lines. The primary field is followed by the first 2 columns in the view that are not the primary field. Those fields will each appear on 1 line.

If the entity is not enabled for images, the primary field for the entity is displayed first. The primary field is followed by the first 3 columns in the view that are not the primary field.

There are a few special list types. The Activity, Stakeholders, and Sales Team lists are discussed in the next sections.

Activity Lists

The simple list for activities includes some special functionality that isn’t available on other lists. Each standard activity type (such as Phone call and Task) includes an icon to differentiate it from the other activity types. Next to the icon, the primary field for the activity is displayed and will wrap up to 3 lines. The next field to display is the first field from the view excluding the primary field, Due Date, and Activity Type. Activities that can be marked as complete will include a check box next to them. Simply tap the check box to mark the activity as complete.

The activities list displays activities that are due today and past due activities in a darker color. Activities that are not due today or past due appear in a lighter color. Activities with a due date will display the date and time of when they are due.

Important

Microsoft Dynamics CRM uses a composite Activity entity to store and retrieve data common between different activity types (such as Task, Appointment, or Phone Call). The due date for activities is stored in the Actual End field for the composite Activity entity. Appointment activities have a Start Date and End Date. Because the due date for the activities list is retrieved from the Actual End field, the time that an appointment ends is displayed in the Activities list. This means that an appointment that starts at 1pm and ends at 2pm will show a time of 2pm on the tile for the appointment in the activity simple list.

Note the following:

The Description field for emails will not appear in lists. This is because it may contain HTML.

For Activities, the new item button (+) opens a flyout so you can select the type of activity to create. This flyout contains a list of all the read/write enabled activities.

Stakeholders and Sales Team Lists

The Stakeholders and Sales Team lists that appear within an Opportunity display the primary field and role. These two entity lists have inline create and editing. When you tap the (+) on these lists, the existing list items move down and a lookup and a drop-down list will become present. Now you can select (or create) an entity to add to the list through the lookup, and to assign a role through the drop-down list.

Editing is an inline experience as well. If you tap the down arrow next to the role name, the drop-down list appears in edit mode and you can change roles.

Select View

To change the view used to display a list of records, tap and hold the name of the list. The command bar appears, which includes the Select View button. Tap the Select View button to select a different view.

Personal views are listed before system views. You can’t create new views within Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Forms in CRM for tablets are based on the development principle of “Design once and deploy across clients.” Entity behavior and business processes in CRM for tablets forms function similarly to forms in the web application, but with a flow tailored for a tablet.

Sales Lead form in web application

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Sales Lead form in CRM for tablets

This diagram represents common components found in updated entity forms in the web application.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM for tablets takes many of the main form elements and presents them in a way that is optimized for tablets, as shown in the following diagram.

Relationships

The Relationships area of the form displays entity relationships that are configured in the Navigation area of a form. If an entity relationship is configured to appear in the Navigation area within the form customization and the entity is enabled for CRM for tablets, the entity relationship will appear in the Relationships section. The Connections relationship tile is not displayed in CRM for tablets.

The relationships section also displays a tile to represent the owner of the record, which is a Lookup field. In addition to the Owner tile, there are some other examples of hardcoded tiles that represent Lookup fields. For example: The Contact form contains a tile to display the parent account. You cannot choose additional Lookup fields to be displayed as tiles in this section.

Form customization that shows navigation items on the left side of the screen

Relationships section within a form

Note the following:

Forms in CRM for tablets are limited to 5 tabs (or 75 fields and 10 lists). This limit includes hidden fields.

Cached data. CRM for tablets only caches records and lists that you’ve recently accessed in the app. To clear cached data, users can either sign out or reconfigure. More information: see “What’s the difference between sign out and reconfigure?” in Sign out or reconfigure CRM for tablets

Encrypting cached data. Cached data is not encrypted. You can use BitLocker to encrypt the entire hard drive on a Windows 8 device. For Apple and Android devices, consider Windows Intune or a product from another company to encrypt the hard drive on the mobile device.

Search in CRM for tablets searches multiple entities. You can configure up to 10 entities to filter within your search. To select entities for search and the search order in CRM for tablets, click or tap Settings > Administration > System Settings > General tab. Under Set up Quick Find, click or tap Select.

Configure multi-entity Quick Find settings

Entities in the Selected Entities list will appear in the multi-entity Quick Find results.

You can select entities from the Available Entities list and add them to the Selected Entities list by using the Add button.

You can select entities from the Selected Entities list and use the Remove button to prevent an entity from appearing in multi-entity Quick Find results.

You can select entities in the Selected Entities list and use the Move Up or Move Down buttons to change the order of the entities that appear in multi-entity Quick Find results.

Configure which entities appear in multi-entity Quick Find results

Note

When you configure the list of entities for Quick Find, the list contains all entities and is not limited to those enabled for CRM for tablets. However, when CRM for tablets performs a multi-entity Quick Find, it filters out the entities that are not enabled for the mobile application.

Records are saved in CRM for tablets based on how you configured autosave in your organization settings. To view your save settings, click or tap Settings > Administration > System Settings > General tab. View the settings under Select the default save option for forms.

If autosave is:

Enabled for the organization, changes to forms are saved when users leave forms.

Disabled for the organization, users must use the command bar in CRM for tablets (swipe from the bottom of the screen) and click or tap Save to save form changes.